Halo: Raider-9
by Azores
Summary: The Year is 2537. Humanity is fighting a losing war with an Alien Juggernaut known as the Covenant. In its desperation, the UNSC deployed 20 Battlegroups made for the sole purpose of striking back at the Covenant, attacking their worlds and targets of opportunity. This is the story of the most successful of these 'Raiders'. This is the story of Battlegroup Raider-9.
1. Prologue

**I don't own Halo.**

 **Bold-My Own Words**

 ** _Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

 _"Italic"-Foreign Language_

 _'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

/Italic\\-AI/Computer typing

* * *

 **The Year is 2537.**

 **Humanity is at war with an Alien Hegemony known only as the Covenant.**

 **For the past 12 years, the UNSC has fought a brutal war of attrition with the Alien Empire.**

 **Humanity, however, is losing this war.**

 **Slowly but surely, despite the best efforts of the brightest minds and commanders within the UNSC, the Covenant have pushed through the Colonies, burning every world they come across and killing billions in their wake. The war of attrition has now become a war of survival, one that some believe is no longer winnable.** **In its desperation, the UNSC has organized 15 Battlegroups of Warships with the sole purpose of striking back at the Covenant's Worlds, attacking any and all targets of opportunity in hopes of slowing down the Alien Juggernaut.**

 **These Battlegroups were known as Raiders.**

 **By the end of the war, all 14 of the Raider Battlegroups would be either destroyed outright or dissolved, the warships being desperately needed for the defense of the ever decreasing number of human colonies. Their success in their mission to disrupt Covenant Operations was mediocre at best, but there is one Battlegroup whose sacrifice and determination helped buy Humanity precious time to eventually win the war against the Covenant.**

 **This Battlegroup was called Raider-9.**

 **5 years, dozens of UNSC Warships, and the tens of thousands of men and women who gave up everything in the defense of Humanity.**

 **This is their story...**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone! Azores here with another story for you. This is a story I've been wanting to work on for quite some time in the Halo-universe. A story that doesn't follow a small squad of supersoldiers saving the day, but rather the everyday men and women who fought and died in the war against a relentless enemy. I always thought that something like this would be an amazing game/story for Bungie/343 to tell. (Halo 3: ODST is a good example of this, even if ODST are still special forces.)**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **I don't own Halo.**

 **Bold-My Own Words**

 ** _Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar_**

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

 _"Italic"-Foreign Language_

 _'Italic'-Radio Chatter_

 _/Italic\\-AI/Computer typing_

* * *

 _ **July 3, 2536**_  
 _ **15.87 Light Years from Sol**_  
 _ **Ambracia System**_  
 _ **Actium**_  
 _ **FLEETCOM Military Complex**_  
 _ **Actium HIGHCOM**_  
 _ **Briefing Room**_

The storm raged on outside, pelting everything in a thick sheet of rain as one of the seasonal hurricanes slowly came through the Thesprotia Territory. Howling winds and thunder could be heard faintly in the distance as if ominously warning of the massive storm approaching the facility. He couldn't help but think that for Humanity, this might as well be a metaphor, a warning, for the gravity of the situation it now found itself in.

After nearly 11 years of constant warfare and desperate defense, the Covenant had breached into the Inner Colonies as of last month.

Within four weeks, Actium HIGHCOM had received WINTER CONTINGENCY declarations from colonies in a dozen Inner Colony systems, including the prominent military colony of Eirene. Whether all of this had been a stroke of horrible luck or the start of some major offensive by the Covenant, no one was sure. Either way, Humanity was in deep trouble now that the Inner Colonies were now directly threatened. If the core of the UNSC's military industry was crippled or outright destroyed, how could the UNSC possibly stop the Covenant? There was no question about it. The Covenant had to be stopped! At all cost!

But Rear-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb had no clue as to what the UNSC could do to stop them, lost in thought as his onyx-colored eyes stared blankly into the coffee mug in front of him, the black liquid having gone cold without anyone touching it. As the meeting commenced, he thought back to New Constantinople, where just two months prior, the Covenant had launched an assault against the colony. Thanks to some split-second decision making and quick strikes against the enemy fleets before they could consolidate, Whitcomb led the charge and managed to save the colony while wiping out a 53-strong Covenant fleet in the process. This overwhelming and badly needed victory over the Covenant war machine ended up earning him a second star on his shoulders for his efforts, and command of one of the most powerful fleets in the outer colonies. The 16th Fleet, which consisted of nearly 140 warships, including three carriers and almost two dozen cruisers, based out of the strategic UNSC fortress world of Actium. Despite only standing about 5'9", Danforth was known to be imposing and charismatic when he needed to be and was renown as a great naval tactician. (Especially after New Constantinople.)

But now, the salt and pepper-mustached man was sitting in a meeting with several other prominent admirals and generals from all branches of the UNSC, many of whom had been serving on the frontlines of the Outer Colonies to discuss a new strategy of defense with some of the highest-ranking officials within the UNSC Hierarchy, all of them seated in the center of the room around a massive half table. His seat was at the far end of the large table, next to Vice Admiral Steinz, who commanded the Outer Colonies' mighty 7th Fleet. (Rather, what remained of the Outer Colonies.) Before them all, the auditorium had hundreds of seats situated in several rows. Only a few dozen seats were occupied, mainly by support staff and ONI Liaisons.

"How many worlds are under siege?" Vice Admiral Steinz asked, his weathered, sagging face contorted into a grimace. He was one of the old breeds, men who had names for themselves during the Insurrection, namely Operation Trebuchet. He was on his way to retiring in 2525, before being forced to stay in following the arrival of the Covenant. Since the start of the war, Steinz had led his 7th Fleet with distinction, vast respect and praise from his men, and with a notorious reputation of standing his ground over each and every colony he defended, suffering heavy losses each time but also forcing the Covenant to take higher casualties than typical engagements. He had gained a sort of cult following from his men, who he made sure to interact and socialize with. But the 74-year-old was well past his prime, and it was beginning to show. His snow white hair was thin and receding, and his eyes didn't quite have the same spark in them they once did. Despite this, the old warrior still managed to find the resolve to soldier on and lead his fleet against the Covenant.

"As of our latest intel reports, 19 colonies are under direct attack by Covenant forces, with the smallest battlegroups numbering about 20 warships." An ONI Liason, Lieutenant Ford, a middle-aged woman with a rather bland face and an uninspiring personality if Danforth was honest, reported quickly as she shuffled through the notes on her datapad. Behind the group, a massive screen displayed a layout of the Human colonies, "Battlegroups and Fleets in the sector under the commands of Vice Admirals Cole, and Choquet are counterattacking where they can to try and dislodge the Covenant, or at the very least, buy time for evacuations to complete."

"What about Eirene? We can't afford to lose that colony; it's logistic centers are too vital to the war effort in the Outer Colonies." One of the Marine Generals, General Kingsley if Danforth heard correctly, inquired. His assessment of the colony was accurate, too. With it's 230 million inhabitants and large industrial basin, Eirene provided vast amounts of logistical support for the UNSC in the Outer Colonies. And from the latest reports in, the Covenant had sent a fleet of over 80 ships to assault the colony, which was defended by a similar-sized UNSC Fleet. And the battle hadn't been going great for the defenders.

"Based on our preliminary reports, assessment of Covenant strength and UNSC defenses in-system, I'm afraid that Eirene will likely fall to the Covenant within a week at best. The Covenant came in force, and we were spread too thin around the planet." The ONI Liason responded without showing much emotion, though, like everyone else in the room, she wasn't happy with the report. The UNSC had been suffering too many defeats and too few victories, especially in space where it truly mattered. (With most of those naval victories going to Admiral Cole, and even then the casualties were horrendous.)

Something needed to change.

"There's nothing we can send to save the planet?" Whitcomb finally spoke up, earning the attention of the group as he continued, "I have nothing I could send immediately, but is there nothing we can spare to reinforce the planet quickly?"

"The closest formation that would even make a significant difference is Battlegroup Potomac. But they'd take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks to get to Eirene from their current location. Eirene's Defense Fleet won't hold out for that long, not against 80 Covenant warships." The ONI Liaison answered, shuffling through some of her notes as she did.

"Goddammit." Steinz growled out, "So we're going to lose one of our most important logistics sites in the Inner Colonies, and we can't do anything about it?"

"Aside from trying to evacuate as many strategic assets as possible? I'm afraid not." Lieutenant Ford responded, but quickly followed up with, "However, there are at least eight colonies we believe can be saved if we hurry and redeploy assets. This, of course, will require Rear Admiral Whitcomb's 16th Fleet and Vice Admiral Steinz's 7th Fleet to be divided up and sent to these worlds to reinforce them ASAP, as Actium's IJP will allow them to deploy to these worlds within 6 to 10 days."

"Well, hell, don't wait for my blessing. Send the word to my subordinates and get those Battlegroups moving. I'll sign off on whatever needs to be filled out later." Whitcomb quickly said, with Steinz nodding in approval. He wasn't one for lollygagging and dotting every T and I. If something needed to be done, then dammit, get it done and get it done now. In this day and age, where the survival of the human race was at stake, everything else was either trivial or a secondary priority.

The meeting dragged on for several more hours, going over potential new doctrines or strategies for engaging both Covenant ground and naval assets, all of which had an emphasis on maximizing enemy casualties while minimizing UNSC casualties, or discussing potential research on new technologies that may help level the playing field against the Covenant. Danforth himself had been put in command of a top secret special weapons project, one that had been outright denied by ONI and several members of HIGHCOM of even existing before he was suddenly made the commanding officer of the project about 10 months back. (Apparently, the previous head of the project had been killed during the Covenant invasion of Charybdis IX.) The ability to destroy a planet sounded fantastic, especially in a war of survival, but even if the NOVA was everything it's supposed to be, the scientists developing it had already told him that a working prototype wouldn't be ready for almost 10 years at best. There was simply too little knowledge about how they would be able to produce the energy need to destroy the planet without building an absurdly massive bomb in the process, so that option was off the table for now. One of the last topics to be discussed was the listing of Outer Colonies that may very well need to be evacuated. While the majority of the colonies could be outright evacuated, as the massive influx of refugees would cause even further mayhem and food shortages for the UNSC, several strategic worlds with vital assets and personnel were now badly in danger of being stuck 'behind enemy lines,' so to say, as the Covenant continued its ruthless advance. So some worlds were being prioritized for evacuation, while others...

Whitcomb suppressed a growl in his throat as he remembered learning about HIGHCOM's decision regarding the Outer Colonies. He didn't want to use the term, but 'sacrificial lambs' were the only description that fits what the UNSC was preparing to do. Several Outer Colony worlds, such as Sedra, Venezia, or Gilgamesh, were to slowly and discreetly have their military assets redirected to the more strategically critical worlds to bolster their defenses against the Covenant. Or, if the colony world in question were deemed unsuitable or unfeasible, would have its garrisons hold position and defend against what was sure to be an imminent invasion. This would be a death sentence to these worlds, as many of them didn't have the logistics to evacuate even a fraction of their populations, and the military forces left defending them would hardly be suited for repelling a Covenant patrol group, let alone a Battlegroup or god forbid a fleet.

Sacrificial lambs. Something a heartless bastard (Probably ONI. To him, this sounded exactly like something Parangosky would conjure up.) came up with, hoping to both keep the Covenant away from the Inner Colonies while they dealt with these easy targets, and simultaneously kill a majority of the Innies on the more Innie-friendly worlds in the process. Even after 11 years of war with a genocidal empire, the Insurrection continued to fight and divert UNSC resources from the more important battle, even if it was in a reduced capacity.

Whitcomb understood the need to buy time, fortify the Inner Colonies, but his blood still boiled at the idea of leaving hundreds of millions to the mercy of a merciless enemy. It was wrong. And yet, what were the alternatives? Stretch the navy thin, trying to protect every world or protect them long enough to evacuate them, and likely lose the entire navy as a result? Fall back altogether to the Inner Colonies and just hunker down? Go on the offensive and attack Covenant worlds?

... Wait... Go on the Offensive.

The more Whitcomb pondered the idea, the more he liked what was conjuring up. They had been on the defensive for almost the entirety of this war, and as far as he knew, the war had yet to reach the Covenant homefront. Why was that? Why hadn't they launched their own attacks and offensives at Covenant colonies? There was no reason for the Covenant to go unscathed in this conflict.

Maybe it was about time for the UNSC to go on the offensive for a change. But this meeting wasn't the place to bring it up. He'd first need to formulate a plan, gather some intel and logistics that would justify an operation of such scale. Thankfully, he had a few friends in ONI that could help him out with that. Perhaps he should give _him_ a call and see what he could come up with. He did owe a favor, after all.

For now, though, he needed to help stabilize the front against this new Covenant offensive, then start coordinating with Vice Admirals Cole and Steinz about what possible forces could be amassed for this operation he had in mind.

* * *

 ** _7 weeks later..._  
 _Actium Orbit_  
 _Whitcomb's Flagship, Vindication-Class UNSC Kilimanjaro_  
 _Captain's Private Quarters_**

They had managed to save, well, mostly save, 9 colonies by the end of the Covenant's Offensive, albeit at tremendous cost. Eirene, just as they had predicted, was lost. Barely a few hundred thousand survivors managed to escape the planet's glassing. The UNSC had lost over 450 warships for a trade-off of about 190 Covenant ships. His own Fleet had lost over 38% of the vessels within its command. Hundreds of millions had died in the Covenant onslaught.

But the enemy had been halted. For now. But how long would that last?

While the enemy was stalled, he needed to quickly formulate a plan to counterattack and bring the war into the Covenant's backyard for a change. He had already received support and approval from both Vice Admiral Cole and Vice Admiral Steinz, as well as the Ambracia Sector FLEETCOM's Commander, Fleet Admiral Barsukova, to pursue this theoretical operation and provide a strategy and plan for the operation to be followed which would be forwarded to Reach FLEETCOM and HIGHCOM for assessment and approval. So far, Danforth Whitcomb had managed to accomplish the majority of this. The plan, for the most part, was very simplistic in concept and implementation. An initial force of 420 warships, divided into 14 Battlegroups, would infiltrate Covenant space and assault strategic worlds identified by the ONI Prowler Corps. Smaller Battlegroups would raid Covenant supply lines and trade routes, while the larger Battlegroups would proceed to either capture or destroy these worlds, capturing critical technological assets and inflicting as much damage to the Covenant war machine as possible in the process while simultaneously forcing the Covenant to pull back fleets to defend their colonies from attack. These attacks and raids were to be continued for as long as feasibly possible, years if necessary in order to buy Humanity time to fortify their colonies. If successful, then Humanity will have bought itself valuable time, and the Covenant would be forced to slug it out over now much more heavily defended worlds. Danforth had all the ships requisitioned, the Battlegroups already formed (on paper), and the plan ready to begin preparations. Except for one thing.

The 2-star Rear Admiral had no Covenant targets to throw this massive attack force at.

Sure, a few Covenant manufacturing sites and refueling centers had been identified, but nothing that was worth sending 400 ships towards. A Prowler could infiltrate there and deploy a few nukes to take them out. No, what he needed were actually Covenant colonies, worlds and centers of industrial might that would actually hurt the Covenant war effort. But he had no friends within ONI that could provide him information on such critical targets. And he had already received a warning from Vice Admiral Stanforth, who had been let in on the project by Vice Admiral Cole, that ONI HIGHCOM and Section One, who oversaw intelligence gathering within the UNSC, did not approve of his plan in the slightest, believing it to be a waste in resources and manpower. Which meant he would receive little to no meaningful help from ONI. Thankfully, the Admiral had an... acquaintance who may be able to help him with that.

 _'Admiral Whitcomb, you're ONI Liason is arriving in t-minus 30 seconds.'_ The ship AI, Fargo, informed him through the comms as the 2-star poured himself a glass of scotch while he went over several reports on cleanup operations on the liberated worlds and the status of his fleet's refit and reinforcing. There were dozens of reports like this spread out across his desk.

"Good. Send him through, and inform the security team outside my door not to give my guest any trouble. He isn't here to give me any." Whitcomb ordered as he took a sip from the glass, savoring the smooth drink as it went down. He didn't want to think of it as liquid courage. There was nothing to be afraid of. Though to be fair, most people didn't think that when you were about to have a one on one talk with the most dangerous spec-ops soldier in the entire UNSC.

He heard the door open, the heavy steps of someone approaching, and a synthetic voice slowly addresses him, "Rear Admiral Whitcomb."

Looking up to the newcomer, Whitcomb merely gave a one-word reply, "Ghost."

A towering man stood before him, easily 6'3" or 6'4" if he wasn't wearing some of the bulkiest, most menacing looking armor the Admiral had ever laid eyes on. A small, narrow, red polarized visor was the only thing that stared back at him. The man never took his helmet off or depolarized it, and the Rear Admiral had only seen the visor depolarized once, for but a few seconds. He hadn't gotten a good look, but from what he had glimpsed, the man definitely had some scarring on his face and was most certainly of Caucasian descent, maybe the Eastern URNA if his manner of speaking was anything to go by. (Which 'only' narrowed down the list of suspects from anywhere of a few tens of millions to a few billion, depending on how close Daniel actually was.) He just couldn't remember if the scar had run down the left eye or right one.

The agent's armor seemed at first glance to be a mix-mash, or an outright heavily customized, ODST armor, as black as the void of space, with notable components and features that were prevalent on both the UA/PPE and the S-1/ONI Recon variants of the BDU. Despite this similarity to the other BDUs, it was obvious to the Admiral that this armor was a unique class of its own. The helmet, for example, wasn't even close to the standard ODST model. Instead, the helmet was rather tall and bulky, with several sensors on the 'chin' and two camera video lens visible up on the 'forehead' of the helmet. Whatever the helmet was, it certainly wasn't a mainline model, instead likely customized or a prototype design, or just an outright highly classified model that was only issued to ONI SpecOps.* Either way, the design was well made, as there were telltale signs of battle damage ranging from scorch marks to even a few impact marks from rifle-caliber bullets all over the armor. Not to mention it was probably one of the most intimidating suits he'd ever laid eyes on.

It didn't help that the man wearing said suit was infamous for his tenacity and ruthlessness in combat. Whitcomb would dare say the Innies feared Ghost and his Timor Squad more than any other UNSC element, outside maybe the Spartan Program, and even then that was debatable.

"It's good to see you again, Agent, and on much less chaotic terms. Can I offer you anything to drink?" Whitcomb offered, but the agent merely shook his head.

"No, thank you, sir. And yes, New Constantinople was a bit... hectic." Ghost confessed.

The Admiral snorted, finishing off his drink as he spoke, "Christ, an understatement if I heard one. Hopefully, this little favor I called in wasn't as hectic." Leaning forward on the desk, he followed up, "Please tell me you got something worthwhile."

The agent didn't respond, but rather, pulled out his datapad and began transferring several files to the Admiral's datapad. Pulling it out, Whitcomb was elated to see dozens of ONI files and reports detailing several significant Covenant worlds and suspected resupply points popping up on the datapad. Detailed reports that were showing defense fleets, orbital facilities, estimated populations, etc. Yes! This is precisely what he was hoping to find. And go figure, ONI would have something like this on hand, but wouldn't share it with the rest of HIGHCOM. No, of course not. Likely cause they had some clandestine, top-secret bullshit plan in place that would never get heard about. Now, that wasn't to say that wasn't fine or anything, sometimes secrecy and discretion was needed, but humanity didn't need a clandestine, top-secret victory over the Covenant. It required a massive morale boost, a display of human resilience and defiance that showed that humanity could and would bring the war to the Covenant's worlds. Give people hope that they could stop the enemy and win the war. Make the Covenant fear invasion for a change.

The Rear-Admiral was almost giddy as he looked over the information provided to him. Ghost had outdone himself, alright.

"Excellent. Damn excellent, Ghost! This'll be perfect. They'll have no choice but to greenlight the operation. Not with all these juicy targets to raise all kinds of hell on." Whitcomb exclaimed, scanning over the reports over and over.

"Maybe."

The Rear-Admiral blinked and turned his attention back to the ONI Agent, who was merely standing with his arms crossed, eyeing him. "The hell do you mean 'maybe?' These are a bunch of grade-A targets we'd be stupid not to try and hit-"

"You read what the estimates on defenses were, correct?" Ghost cut him off. Whitcomb's expression turned into a scowl. Of course, he looked at that. He'd be a poor excuse of an Admiral if he didn't take enemy defenses into consideration. That was partly why he requested so many ships.

Ghost quickly followed up, "Target World 1-Bravo alone has a defense fleet of roughly 70 warships, with lots of mid-tonnage cruisers and destroyers."

"That isn't anything we can't handle. I have no intention of throwing my men's lives away in some suicidal attack." Whitcomb protested.

"And no plan survives contact with the enemy. You know that. If you think these bastards were fanatical fighters before," Ghost retorted, "how fanatical do you think they're gonna fight when they're trying to defend one of their colonies? And a big, heavily populated one at that?"

The Admiral scowled at him, not liking the fatalist attitude, but said nothing. Ghost continued, "If I were you, I wouldn't even bother landing troops on the ground and getting bogged down in some ground campaign. Once the defense fleets are dealt with, drop every nuke and MAC round you've got onto their cities, then get the hell out. We need to keep the Covenant on their toes and guessing as to which colonies or systems will get hit next. And under no circumstances should your forces get drawn into a pitched battle. Force the enemy to fight-"

"Agent, I do believe you're patronizing me," Whitcomb said accusingly, cutting the man's speech short. The Ghost seemed to pause as if he just realized what he was doing. This struck the Rear Admiral as odd and completely out of character for the ONI Field Agent, who was normally very quiet and didn't say much. He couldn't but wonder what brought that on.

Ghost quickly collected himself and answered, "No, Rear Admiral. I just..." An awkward pause, followed by a deep sigh, "I'm just hoping you understand the massive risk you're taking here."

"I do. And believe me, if this goes horribly wrong, then I'll rightly take the blame and fall for it." Whitcomb responded, "But dammit, we can't keep staying on the defensive like this! If this keeps up, we'll eventually be fighting these bastards on Actium, Paris IV, or god forbid, Reach!"

"Which is exactly why this operation can't fail or go horribly wrong. It has to succeed. So that should be all the more reason that we look over every possible scenario that we can think of and meticulously plan on them accordingly." Ghost said, glancing down slightly, silent for a moment. Whitcomb didn't fully hear what the Agent said next, but it sounded something on the lines of, "The Covenant isn't the only problem we've got."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. What other problems are there? The Innies?" The Admiral inquired, snapping the Agent out of his stupor. He didn't say anything, instead slowly holding his hand out and looking down at the emblem for ONI that was plastered on his left handguard. He seemed to stare at them for what felt like an eternity, before slowly closing his hand into a fist.

"You ever wonder about what exactly you were fighting for? If you really were making a difference?" The voice might as well have been a faint whisper, further stupifying the Admiral. What the hell was he talking about? He'd never seen or heard of the man act like this.

"Ghost?"

Ghost merely shook his head and looked up, "Nevermind." was all that the Agent said as he turns and began to leave, following up with, "Everything you need is in those files. For your own sake, leave nothing to chance in this campaign of yours, and don't contact me ever again. You'll be on ONI's shitlist for a while once they figure out how you got the information."

As the Agent left the room, Whitcomb couldn't possibly comprehend what Ghost meant by all of that. Questioned what he was fighting for? He knew damn well what he was fighting for. Humanity's survival. The real question was what did Ghost think he was fighting for? Or was the Agent, having been ONI's attack dog for so many years, finally questioning whether ONI had humanity's best interest at heart?

Was Ghost, one of the most feared individuals in all of humanity, seriously having an existential crisis?

Well, so what? Was ONI a bunch of bastards? Absolutely, but they were _Humanity's_ bastards. As much as even he loathed the organization, they were a necessary evil needed in order for humanity to survive. They provided critical intelligence (Even if they didn't always share that critical intel.) and technological advancements that helped give humanity a fighting chance. If Ghost can't except that, well, why the fuck did he ever work for them in the first place. The idea that Ghost might have not had a choice... never crossed his mind.

In the years to come following this last encounter between the two, Danforth Whitcomb would come to regret never delving deeper into what Ghost had been talking about, and henceforth, possibly planning. When October 23, 2538, happened, and ONI's leadership was mostly wiped out, it's classified information and files leaked, Whitcomb would only be able to think back to this moment and realize he could have done something but failed to.

But instead, he never pondered the idea at that moment just after the Agent had left, instead, he had focused on crafting his campaign to damage the Covenant war effort and give the UNSC some breathing room to bolster its defense of the Inner Colonies.

* * *

 ***Ghost's Armor is based partially off of the Infiltrator-Class MJOLNIR. My line of thinking was to have this be a sort of prototype or predecessor to the suit developed for Spartan use afterward, with this model being meant for use by ONI Spec-Ops and other Special Forces branches that required a stealthy but durable BDU, as their missions were often putting the users deep within enemy territory, with a strong liability for combat to happen.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's short, I know, but I've been finishing up the Prologue chapters for both Halo-Mass Effect stories in order to try and get them out. Altered Destiny's Prologue is nearly finished, so I'll hopefully have it out soon, but I'll probably wait until both the Prologue chapters are done so I can release them simultaneously.**

 **Thanks again for reading, leave a review to let me know what you thought about it, and I'll see you next time.**

 **-Azores**


End file.
